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Photo Gallery: Modern Istanbul

Istanbul Ferry

Photograph by Dave Yoder

In Istanbul, ferries zigzag constantly across the Bosporus strait, shuttling passengers from Europe to Asia and back again. Beloved for its complex, layered past, Istanbul is where East meets West—and may also offer a vision of what’s to come for the world's increasingly diverse cities. In Traveler's October issue, author Pico Iyer explores this "City of the Future" with photographs by Dave Yoder.

Istanbul Nightlife

Photograph by Dave Yoder

Visitors lounge outside cafés and bars near the Ortakoy Mosque in Istanbul. "Istanbul is the center of a country that is 98 percent Islamic yet increasingly famous for its watermelon martinis," notes author Pico Iyer. "Foreigners come to Istanbul for what is Turkish about the place. Turks are drawn here by what’s cutting-edge and international."

Tram on Istiklal Avenue

Photograph by Dave Yoder

A tram navigates Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue, one of the busiest shopping venues in Europe. "What really excited me about Istanbul was simply the sense of ceaseless movement, the way the energies of an Asian metropolis pulsed through largely European streets, so that the whole place seemed, intoxicatingly, a work in perpetual progress," writes author Pico Iyer.

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Hippodrome

Photograph by Dave Yoder

Rain glistens on the pavement around the spiral Serpent Column in the Hippodrome, once a huge stadium for chariot racing. The Serpent Column, which was originally topped with three snakeheads, was brought to Constantinople from Delphi, and has stood in the same spot since the founding of the city in A.D. 330. This bronze column, and the carved Egyptian obelisk standing behind it, are some of the few remnants of the Hippodrome stadium, which could hold 100,000 spectators.

Nisantasi Neighborhood

Photograph by Dave Yoder

The Nisantasi neighborhood of Istanbul caters to high-end shoppers with modern boutiques and sidewalk cafés. "[Istanbul] can be in tune with the future precisely because it has so rich a sense of the past and such seasoned wisdom about the cycles of culture and history," writes author Pico Iyer.